Of Bikes, Books, and Beer
by Lilymaid620
Summary: He turned to take a slug of his beer, when he saw her. She stood out among the nerds for two reasons: 1. Her hair was a bright, beautiful blue and 2. She was about to fall off of the chair that she was standing on. Based off of something I saw in a movie while babysitting. GaLe AU with mentions of plenty of other ships. Beware! Rated T for Gajeel's language.


**Of Books, Bikes, & Beer**

Gajeel was never one to be picky about where he got his beer. As long as it wasn't that piss water known as Budlight, he was relatively indifferent as to where the drinks were coming from. However, he had some reservations about getting a beer at this place. For one thing, it was a random place in the middle of nowhere. Gajeel had been to plenty of dives in the middle of nowhere, but this particular place was in the middle of a long stretch of dirt roads in Idaho. And for another thing... It was a bookstore. Yeah, apparently there was such a thing as a bar and bookstore combination. And, of course, one of the guys in his gang's girl knew exactly where it was and had run out of fresh reading material that day.

Gajeel was a member of a group of bikers known as the Dragon Slayers. They'd been making their way through Idaho, staying the night at cheap motels, when Natsu had announced that his girl, Lucy, knew of a good bar in the area. Laxus, Bickslow, Rogue, Sting, and Gajeel would never turn down the chance to have a good beer or two before hitting the road again. But Lucy had failed to mention that Fairy Tail was, actually a bookstore that just so happened to have a bar inside amongst the bookshelves. Apparently, the owners were a married couple. Freed and Mirajane Justine had combined their two passions into one business: Fairy Tail Bookstore and Bar.

Amongst the little nerds, Gajeel and his buddies stuck out like sore thumbs. The minute they'd walked in wearing their leathers in this room full of button up shirts and glasses, all eyes had been on them. Gajeel had seen more than one girl reach for their inhaler and a few boys amongst them. He didn't blame them. Lucy, Cana, and Yukino were quite the sight in their tight clothes. Natsu, Laxus, and Sting had started fights on more than one occasion when someone at a bar had shown a little too much interest in their girls. These pitiful little bookworms never stood a chance.

Gajeel glanced around the room at his gang. Laxus was at the other end of the bar attempting to limit his girlfriend's alcohol intake (despite her appearance, Cana could drink all of them under the table any day.). Bickslow seemed to be hitting on a hot little waitress with short white hair, whose face turning redder with every word he said (wait until she found out he had five dogs at home), and Rogue had gone off to take a piss. Then there was Natsu and Sting. After getting their beer, the two had been dragged off by their girlfriends and were now holding their stacks of books while Lucy and Yukino bent over some book in the astronomy section, talking animatedly.

"Tch. Whipped." Gajeel said. He turned to take a slug of his beer when he saw her. She stood out among the nerds for two reasons: 1. her hair was a bright, beautiful blue and 2. She was about to fall off of the chair that she was standing on. With speed, he didn't know he had and for reasons unknown to even him, Gajeel ran over and caught the little bookworm in his arms. He looked down into hazel eyes staring at him in surprise from behind red glasses. "You okay there shrimp?" Her face flushed as she puffed out her cheeks in what had to be the most adorable angry face ever.

"I'm not a shrimp!"

"You seem pretty small to me."

"That's only because you're freakishly huge!"

"My hugeness does not make you any less tiny." She hit him with the rather large book that she'd climbed on the chair to get.

"Put me down, you ill-mannered oaf!" Despite his pride screaming out for him to dump this girl on the ground, book and all, Gajeel restrained himself and set her down gently.

"Is that any way to treat the person who saved you from falling flat on your ass, Shrimp?"

"My name isn't Shrimp! Just because you helped me doesn't mean that I have to tolerate your boorish attitude."

"Trust me, Shrimp, I'm anything but boring," Gajeel said with his classic smirk.

"BOORISH! It means rude! And don't call me Shrimp!"

"Fine. What's your name then?"

"Levy. Levy McGarden."

"Tch. I like Shrimp better."

"Are you always so obstinate?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"What that word means."

"Stubborn. Refusing to change one's mind or course of action despite persuasion too."

"Oh. Then yea, I'm stubborn. You always use such fancy words."

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On if, by 'fancy words', you mean excellent vocabulary, then yes." Gajeel had to give her that one. "It's a part of the job."

"Whadda ya mean?"

"I'm the local librarian."

"So you're the queen of the bookworms." The puffed out cheeks came back. Still, so cute.

"Just because I like books doesn't mean I don't want to do other things. I'm going to travel the world someday and live an exciting life." It was very rare for someone to stand up to him like this. With his hulking size, bad attitude, and a large number of piercings all other his face and body, many people were intimated by Gajeel Redfox. Now, this nerdy, blue-haired, shrimp of a girl was standing up to him, and he loved it.

"Then what are you doing here?" She deflated some and looked down.

"Magnolia's a small town and someone had to run the library. I never got a chance to leave before I was shoved into the job after the previous librarian retired. I used to work there in high school, so I was, really, the only one who could take over."

"And now you're stuck?" She nodded. "Do you want to be unstuck?"

"What do you mean?" Gajeel didn't know what possessed him to say the thing he did next and, years later, he would declare it to be the best impulsive decision he ever made.

"Shrimp, I've got a bike out there big enough for two. We can leave whenever you want." She was taken aback.

"What! What do you mean? I can't just leave."

"If you don't go now, when will you?" Levy thought about that. If she was really honest with herself, if she didn't leave now, she knew she never would. She would stay here in Magnolia until she died, living a perfect white picket fence life with a husband and two kids and when she lay on her death bed she would wonder about the handsome biker with long black hair, unlike any person she'd ever seen before, who offered to take her away and wonder what could have been. Or... She could take a chance and go with him. Levy had never been one for impulse decisions. However, in this moment, she did the one thing she'd never done in her life. She took a chance.

"Take me with you." Gajeel and Levy hurried, paying for her book along with Lucy and Yukino's on the way out. The next thing that Levy knew she was wearing Lucy's spare helmet and Gajeel was helping her up onto his enormous bike, before climbing on in front of her. Levy wrapped her arms around his waist, clenching her fists in his leather jacket, scared to fall off. She could hear the engines of the other motorcycles start and rev in the background, and could feel Gajeel's coming to life underneath her. As the bike started forward Levy squeezed her eyes shut and clung tighter, if it was possible, to Gajeel and pressed her face into his back. The bike was speeding along and Levy could feel the wind in her hair as it flew all over the place despite her headband.

"Open your eyes Shrimp." She heard Gajeel yell over the sound of the wind. She tentatively opened her eyes. The world around her was racing by at a breakneck pace. Levy pulled her head up slightly and looked in front of her. The dirt road stretched out in front of her, seemingly endless. The feeling of freedom was exhilarating. She felt herself getting drunk off of it, the wind in her hair, the feel of leather on her palms, and the smell of Gajeel. Levy relaxed her white-knuckled grip and hugged Gajeel's back. Gajeel smiled, knowing what the hug was for. His shrimp loved this as much as he did. The two rode on together and later, when a black-haired, hazel-eyed daughter and blue-haired, red-eyed son asked them how they met, they would tell a story of bikes, books, and beer.

This came from watching Alpha and Omega with the five-year old I babysit. There was this scene with a librarian and a biker who had been met and gotten together at a bookstore that, also, sold beer. I saw that and I was like "GaLe!" So, Ta Da! My second ever AU! Hope you enjoyed it!

~ Mallorie a.k.a. Lilymaid620


End file.
